Estoy prosperando.

 Have you ever been called on something that makes you wonder why it took someone so long to call you on it? For example, in residency, I'm not sure why but I had gotten stuck on the term globose to describe the typical obese American abdomen on the physical exam. I was a senior resident before an Attending called me on it. "What do you mean by globose?" Well... puzzled, I responded with the definition and a slew of synonyms. To which he responded with a general role of the eyes and essentially told me to stop the silliness and call it what it is... obese. I now realize the benefit of being as clear as possible yes, but there's also coding and risk factor calculations that are affected by a patient being obese, whereas "globose" can't be computed. This happened to me again recently, only this time it was a patient checking me. Without putting much thought into it, I've used the phrase "everything came out all right." in my general post op debrief, both with patients and their families. The vagueness, I thought, to my benefit as "everything" could be interpreted to be the specific anatomical structure I was operating on or the whole operation as a whole and both would be correct. The other day, after a quick debrief with my patient in the post anesthesia care unit I had dropped that line in my word vomit and started to move on, at which time my patient groggily and with closed eyes leaned towards the nurse and commented, "by everything, I hope she means my gallbladder!" As with before, I now realize the benefit of being as clear as possible, and I'm wondering just how many times I've left people confused. Why it took so long for someone to call me on the potential misleading words I had been using? I guess, thank goodness for the disinhibition effect of anesthesia!

Another definition I've been bemusing lately is thriving. "Thrive" essentially meaning to prosper or flourish, but the difficulty I'm having with all of those words is the subjectivity and/or lack of objectivity it carries. I had posted a few pictures from Nicaragua on social media last week. I received a comment, in statement form, "You're thriving," of course with an emoji for emphasis. The comment initially made me smile, but then I paused, hit by the reality of that statement. Did this mean it was assumed I hadn't been "thriving" before? I've run into this same conundrum before concerning the subjectivity of what it means to be "settled." Being asked by someone, "why don't I settle down?", when I already felt "settled." So what is thriving measured against? How often one posts on social media? If so, then yes, I do post more now than past years, and therefore could be considered thriving. But if you were to ask me in the past, with the exception of a few specific years out in New York, I would have answered, "yes, I feel I am thriving." By my definition, if you are where God wants you, doing what God wants you to be doing, then not only are you settled, but you're thriving. 

Much Love.